TCU’s locker room on Monday was met with a wave of emotional moments.

The group shared tears, laughter, stories and jokes, all of which being some of the last that would be shared together.

Hailey Van Lith will remember them all.

“I’m forever connected to these women and this coaching staff,” the star said on Monday. “I am just really honored to have them in my life and it was awesome to hear from everybody.”

A loss to Texas in the Elite Eight on Monday in Birmingham ended a historic basketball career for Van Lith, who is the only player to lead three different programs to an Elite Eight appearance.

But on Monday in a sacred locker room meeting, every point, win and championship took a backseat for Van Lith.

“A lot of it was just gratitude for each other,” she said. “We’ve all been on unique journeys, and we’ve all meant different things to each other at different points in our lives. It was a ton of gratitude, a ton of love and a lot of people spoke.

“It wasn’t just us four, it wasn’t just Coach Campbell, it was really awesome to hear. It broke your heart even more hearing each other talk because you realize tomorrow we won’t get to practice.”

In her final season of college basketball with TCU, Van Lith claimed Big 12 Player of the Year honors as she set the program’s single-season records in points (680) and assists (202), averaging 17.9 points, 5.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds a game.

She shot 46.3% from the field and 34.4% from beyond the arc, adding 42 steals and 22 blocks on defense in her lone season in Fort Worth.

“I have a hard time believing that anybody in any sport in one year can have a greater impact than what Hailey Van Lith has had at TCU,” coach Mark Campbell said. “Obviously, there’s the basketball piece and a single season of scoring record, a single-season assist record, and was the leader of this group that won 34 games and took us to an Elite Eight.”

Vocal about her mental health struggles, Van Lith noted how her faith and the teammates around her were as she transitioned from LSU to TCU out of the transfer portal and put together a historic season.

She said her journey over the last five seasons — the first three at Louisville — were nothing that she expected.

“It was a lot of nights of being, like, I feel like God has put this thing on my heart to be great, but it’s not working out right now,” she said. ‘A lot of times I had to look at myself in the mirror and just be like, ‘What do you want, Hailey? Who are you?’ I’m grateful for it. I’m grateful for the fact that He gave me a hard journey, because I would not be the woman I am sitting up here without it.

“I really praise God for the struggle and the suffering. I praise Him for the nights where I didn’t want to be alive anymore. I praise Him for the nights that I was on medication because I couldn’t sleep or eat. And it’s painful to talk about it but it’s really how beautiful life is.”

Campbell said that Van Lith being able to let her guard down and open up to those on the team changed him and helped make him a better coach.

“Her allowing me to go on that journey with her and walk through her struggles that she has had is one of the reasons the season that she had has unfolded,” he TCU coach said. “When her teammates get to see someone with her platform open up and allow me to coach her, challenge her, love her, encourage her, it breaks down walls for everybody.

“We have a group of those four young women that were all on their own journey and had different struggles and different insecurities and you guys it’s why this thing became such a tight-knit family. This thing is a freaking sisterhood. There were so many tears and laughter that were in that locker room after this game. As a staff, that means we’ve done our job well.”

Projected as one of the top picks in the upcoming WNBA Draft, Van Lith will take the best season in TCU history into her next step of basketball to cap off her historic college basketball career.

But, she assured Fort Worth of one thing: she isn’t going anywhere.

“I can’t wait to be a TCU alum,” Van Lith said. “I can’t wait to come back and give back to this program and continue having my relationship with coach. I think he will be around for the rest of my life.

“That’s the best part about this year.”